


Cracked

by darylclaimedmybuns



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Awkward Daryl, F/M, Insecure Daryl, Protective Daryl, Shy Daryl, all the daryls
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 13:29:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6706252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darylclaimedmybuns/pseuds/darylclaimedmybuns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i> Some times cracks can separate people, but other times you may find your missing piece in someone else. </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **This is my first series, I'm testing the waters a little. Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think!**

It was impossible, I’d been alone for the worst of the winter, barely sleeping or eating, just moving. Humans were bad news, I was better for being alone. The awful weather seemed to be my friend, it was much easier to track and spot danger in the blankets of soft snow. Unfortunately, I didn’t think of the consequences when these made it easy to find me. 

Panting for breath, hidden behind a tree, I steeled myself. Listening carefully for the voices of the men close by and scouting my surroundings for possible exit strategies. 

“Here, the tracks lead this way!” 

Shit, I bit down hard on my lip and took a deep breath in. A seconds silence before pushing off from the tree, running as quietly as possible, weaving through the forest. Luck wasn’t on my side as I began to hear quick footsteps crunching behind me. A shot rang out, the bullet sinking into the tree beside me as I quickly took shelter behind it. Maybe this was it, this is how I’d go, I’ve lost anything of meaning to my life and I was barely existing anymore. With the pitiful thoughts buzzing through my head, I contemplated stepping out, hands up in surrender. 

“Come on out little lady, we’d be mighty grateful if you’d come chat with us…”

Weighing my options I figured I may as well go down fighting, so I readied my pistol and stepped out shakily from my safety. 

“Now, now, no need to be so brash, we don’t mean no harm,” a man stepped out from his spot, no weapon drawn. The air around him uncomfortably calm, he had to have a vast amount of people out here with him. 

I stayed silent and unrelenting, I kept my gun aimed at his chest, stealing quick glances at my surroundings. 

“Put the gun down lady, and we’ll talk,” he took a step closer, and my finger twitched on the trigger. “Ah, we wouldn’t want you to get hurt now would we?” 

Without thinking I pulled the trigger, knocking the man off his feet, blood staining the snow beneath him. Turning to run I knew I’d made a rash mistake, and that thought was confirmed when I bullet ripped its way into my leg, Falling to the ground with a yelp, a man rushed me, bringing his foot swiftly into my rib cage. I cried out, as this action was repeated several times, curling up into a ball. 

A quiet whizzing sound seemed to fly above me, followed by a low thump and the kicks ceased. I was left in silence with pain screaming through my veins, I felt surprising too hot even laying in the snow. Unfurling, I braved a look up. The man who had been beating on me, lay face down with a bolt through his head, across from me the man I’d shot lay groaning and another body not far from him also lay flat with a bolt sticking out of their head. 

On trembling limbs, I attempted to sit up but pain caused me to buckle and fall face down in the snow. The groaning ahead of me stopped, and footsteps neared me, before I could react I felt everything inside me give out and everything turned black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Some times cracks can separate people, but other times you may find your missing piece in someone else_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Future chapters will be lengthier, I promise. Any feedback is welcome. Enjoy!**

Voices, warmth, my head felt foggy but the dull ache in my side and leg quickly pulled me to my senses and I jolted awake with a raspy yelp. Panting, my eyes focused on what appeared to be a doctor’s office, I was hooked up to an IV bag and tucked into a bed. 

“Hey there,” a soft voice beside me snapped me out of my daze, head whipping round to face the owner. A short blond woman, smiling at me. An honest face, kind eyes warily taking in my panicked form behind her glasses. “It’s alright, I’m not going to hurt you. Hell, that would only give me more work to do,” she huffed a little laugh at her own joke whilst I remained stunned and confused. 

“I, uh, I’m Denise- a doctor, I’m the one who patched you up,” she back peddled, fixing her glasses on her nose and looking awkward. 

“Patched me up? I was… I was left for dead, in the middle of nowhere,” I hadn’t said this much in a long time and my voice almost sounded alien to me. Denise nodded, a small smile still held on her face. 

“Daryl, a good friend of mine. He brought you in, told us what happened,” she seemed to lighten up more at the mention of this man, taking a couple more steps towards her. “How uh, are you feeling? I know, stupid question, but I need to ask.”

“Like I got shot and used as a human football,” I quipped, earning a small snort from Denise. 

“That sounds about right,” she chuckled, checking my IV. I couldn’t believe I was having a somewhat lighthearted banter with another human, let alone in a doctors office. Had I woken up on a different planet? 

“Now, I’m pretty certain you have a fractured rib, so you’re going to need to rest for a while, not that you’ll be running anywhere on that leg of yours. Luckily the shot just missed your artery and was fairly easy to remove,” she explained everything to me and I could just about manage to nod when another woman walked into the room.

“Denise I- Oh… hey, you’re awake,” the new woman walked up beside Denise, holding a couple bags of medicine in her hands. 

“Hey Tara, thanks for grabbing these,” she took the medicine and placed them on the table beside the bed.”This is for the pain, they’ll help you sleep too, so you know, you can get to healing up faster.” 

I nodded and wondered what the cost of the help would be, nothing was done out of the kindness of peoples hearts nowadays, people didn’t posses hearts. With a cough from Tara, Denise seemed to shift into gear, administering the medicine into the IV. 

“I should let Rick and Daryl know that you’re awake, is there anything you need?” Denise made to walk away, Tara lingering behind, probably to keep an eye on me. Before I could even ask for water, I felt the pain turn into a soft warmth and my eyes became far too heavy to fight.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Some times cracks can separate people, but other times you may find your missing piece in someone else_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **I'm attempting staying true to their characters, and keeping them from being too OOC. Hope it's working...**

“Rick, she was alone, ain’t nothin’ to her, them guys were gon’ do somethin’ awful… Couldn’t make the same mistake again, couldn’t.” A deep drawl rose me from my deep sleep but my eyes seemed too heavy to open yet, I could sleep for years. 

“I know Daryl, you did the right thing, you did. But we still have to take precaution here, monitor her for a while, make sure she’s not a threat,” this voice had it’s own drawl, a much softer yet clearer southern twang.

“I’ll do it, keep an eye,” the grunt replied.

“Okay, grab me when she wakes up,” and with that silence hung around me, and I slowly fell into a dreamless sleep again. 

\--x--

Pain, oh lord, the pain again. I groaned, clenching onto my side and opening my eyes. It felt like sand had been scrubbed into them and they instantly fell shut again. 

“Hey, hold on, kay?” The same deep drawl from earlier grunted to me as footsteps rushed out the room. Not long after, more footsteps returned and I braved opening my eyes again, to be met with Denise and a long haired man scowling down at me. 

“Hey, are you alright? You slept for quite some time,” Denise chuckled and helped me sit up a little. 

“Holy ouch, that’s a bitch and then some,” I griped while holding my side, a short huff left the angry looking man beside her. I looked to see an amused glint in his eyes. 

“Something funny about my suffering there, bud?” I shot at him, his eyes downcast and he shook his head, almost appearing bashful. 

“Naw, but you got a mouth on ya, sunshine,” he returned with a ghost of a grin. I let out a huff of my own, and rolled my eyes, laying back into the pillows Denise had rearranged for me. 

“You need something to eat and drink, no doubt, I’ll give you more pain meds once you’ve eaten, that sound okay?” Denise seemed startled at the exchange between me and this strange man, but remained all business. I nodded and she turned to walk away, before leaving she stopped in the doorway, “I’ll have to get Rick, he’ll want to talk to you, he kinda runs things around here. Don’t worry though, he’s nice, well, I mean, he’s uh-” 

“Denise.” The man waved his hand, signalling her to stop and she did, looking tongue tied and lost for words but laughed anyway. 

“I’ll leave you with Daryl until then,” she scampered off. 

“So you’re Daryl?” I asked, realization dawning over me, the snippets of conversation I’d heard coming back to me. I was answered with a short nod, as he sat on the window ledge. “You brought me here…” I thought out loud. 

This statement was met with silence, and I was perfectly fine with not talking but it was bugging me, so after a few minutes I pushed, “why?” He chewed on his bottom lip, gazing over his shoulder out the window, then back up to me with a shrug. 

“Ya needed help, woulda died out there,” he stated flippantly, as if it were obvious, but in this world I’d come to know, it was common courtesy to not care about others’ wellbeing. “’Sides, didn’t waste my damn bolts for nothin’, gonna do a thing, you do it right.” 

Before I could reply the door opened and a man I presumed to be Rick entered, looking the complete opposite to my knight-in-shining-armor sat opposite me. There was a kindness to Rick’s blue eyes, but it was guarded and calculated. He smiled non-the-less. 

“So, you two got acquainted yet?” Rick spoke, seemingly amused by his own statement. Daryl just grunted incoherently and I hadn’t the foggiest what joke I was missing out on. “I’m sorry, I’m Rick, you are?” 

It was the first time I’d given my name in a long time, and I hadn’t heard anyone use it for what felt like years. I swallowed a lump in my throat, attempting to remove my frown. “Freya...” I played with my fingers, not meeting Rick’s intimidating gaze. 

“Freya, okay, well, I just have a few questions for you and I’ll let you eat and rest up,” Rick cocked his head, attempting to catch my eye and I relented, offering him a nod. 

“How many walkers have you killed?” This question threw me off, and I glanced puzzled at the bed. I couldn’t remember, was I meant to be counting? Had this all been some test? 

“I… haven’t counted? Is that bad? I don’t know.” Rick seemed somewhat satisfied but didn’t answer any of my questions.

“How many people have you killed?” Well… that made more sense but still these questions seemed odd.

“5.” A cold chill ran through me as I remembered them.

“Why?” Daryl asked this time, and I shifted my gaze from Rick to his eyes, I couldn’t hold his gaze for long as he seemed to be looking straight through me, I felt naked. 

“They wanted to hurt me, my family. One of them asked me to, they didn’t want to turn…” I felt my voice dwindle towards the end, not wanting to relive the memory. 

“You were alone for a while?” Rick asked me, coming closer to my bedside, there was a softer tone to his voice and if I wasn’t mistaken a concerned squint to his eyes. 

“All of the Winter so far, people are a too risky, haven’t come across nice folk since… I don’t know when.” Rick and Daryl exchanged a look. 

“Okay, well, where we are, right now, is safe. We have walls, keeps the walkers out,” Rick paused, smiling slightly, “I know it must be strange, all of this, but I’m willing to give you a chance. To stay, but we will be keeping an eye on you… At least for a little while, we do not tolerate anyone putting others in danger, you understand?” As kind as Rick came across, I felt the sincerity in his words, I knew it was not an empty threat. 

Lost for words, and the pain flaring up, I nodded. 

“Daryl, come chat with me for a minute? Freya, Denise will be back soon with some food. Rest up,” He smiled briefly and left with Daryl in tow.


End file.
